Cleaner roller for printing presses



Oct. 22, 1957 P. FUDALA CLEANER ROLLER FOR PRINTING PRESSES Filed April 22, 1955 INVENTOR.

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v 4 TTOzQA/EYS United States Patent CLEANER ROLLER FOR PRINTING PRESSES Paul Fudala, New York, N. Y.

Application April 22, 1955, Serial No. 503,102

2 Claims. (Cl. 101-425) This invention relates generally to improvements in means for cleaning the rollers of printing presses of the offset type.

It is an object of this invention to provide a cleaner roller for application to an offset printing press for cleaning the ink rollers and the water rollers of the press in one operation. At present, in cleaning the ink and water rollers of a press, a wash-up device is attached to the press and the water rollers are taken out and washed separately from the ink rollers. In accordance with the present invention a cleaner roller is disposed between the ink rollers and the water rollers of a press so as to transmit cleaning fluid from the water rollers onto the ink rollers after a preliminary washing up of the press in the usual manner, so as to eliminate the necessity of removing the water rollers for cleaning purposes and thereby hasten the cleaning of the ink rollers so that the press will be more quickly readied for subsequent printing operations. This results in a considerable saving of time in changing the printing press from one printing job to succeeding jobs.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide a cleaner roller which may be removably secured onto a printing press so as to be maintained in rolling contact with the ink and water rollers in the space therebetween so as to transmit cleaning fluid applied to the water rollers from the water rollers to the ink rollers, and which may be quickly and easily applied to the press after a printing job has been completed and the press is being readied for a subsequent printing job.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description, forming the specification, and taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure l is a perspective view of a portion of a lithographic otfset printing press showing its ink and water rollers with a cleaner roller embodying this invention applied thereto; and

Figure 2 is an exploded perspective view of the cleaner roller.

With continued reference to the drawings, there is illustrated a cleaner roller of this invention, generally indicated at 10, applied to a printing press of the lithographic offset type. The press includes a plate cylinder 12 mounted to rotate on a shaft 14, an ink distributing system, generally indicated at 16, and a water distributing system, generally indicated at 18. The water distributing system comprises a pan or trough 20 containing a dampening fluid, such as water, and mounted on the press at a convenient location spaced from the plate cylinder 12, as shown in Figure 1. A plurality of felt covered water rollers 22 in rolling contact with each other and extending from within the trough 20 into contact engagement with a portion of the outer peripheral surface 13 of the plate cylinder provides a water feed for the plate cylinder for applying thereto a dampening fluid during the operation of the press.

The ink distributing system 16 comprises an ink fountain 24 having a conductor roller 26 operatively connected therewith for carrying ink from the fountain roller 28 to the plurality of ink rollers 30 which are in rolling contacting engagement with the conductor roller 26, and with the peripheral surface 13 of the plate cylinder 12 at a point thereof spaced from that portion engaged by the water rollers.

The ink rollers 30 of the ink distributing system are spaced from the water rollers 22 of the water distributing system. -It is in this space between the ink rollers and water rollers that the cleaner roller 10 is interposed for a cleaning-up operation of the press.

The cleaner roller 10 comprises an elongated, cylindrical body 32 extending substantially the length of the ink and water rollers between which it is disposed. Stub shafts 34 and 36 project axially outwardly from opposite ends of the body 32. Ball bearings 38 and 40 are secured on the respective stub shafts 34 and 36. Each of the ball bearings carries on its outer cover a depending hook 42 having secured thereto one end of a contractile helical spring 44. The other end of the spring 44 has secured thereto and extending longitudinally therefrom a connecting member 46 in the form of an open hook for releasably engaging on opposite sides of a portion 50 of the frame of the press, as shown in Figure 1. Thus, the cleaner roller 10 is maintained in the space between one of the ink rollers and one of the water rollers in rolling contact with these rollers by the tension of the spring 44. Due to the provision of the ball bearings 38 and 40 at opposite ends of the cleaner roller, the cleaner roller rotates about its longitudinal axis.

In operation, washing up of the press is started in the usual manner. After excess ink is removed from the press, the cleaner roller 10 is installed in the operating position shown in Figure 1. A cleaning or wash-up fluid is then applied to the water rollers and this fluid is transmitted therefrom to the ink rollers by the cleaner roller 10 so that the ink rollers as well as the water rollers are cleaned without removing either the ink or the water rollers from the press. This operation of applying cleaning or wash-up fluid is repeated until all of the rollers are clean.

In those types of printing presses wherein the water applying or contact rollers contact the ink applying rollers to apply water directly to the ink distributing system, it is considered that all of the rollers are in rolling engagement and the water rollers becomes one system comprising the ink distribution system. The cleaner roller 10 may be applied in the same manner to this type of press by interposing it between the contacting water and ink rollers.

It will be observed that when not in use, the cleaner roller 10 may be quickly removed from the press by merely removing the hook members 46 from the frame and taking the cleaning roller off of the press. The cleaner roller may then be stored in a convenient place adjacent the press for subsequent cleaning operations.

While there is shown and described the preferred embodiment of the invention, it is to be understood that the structure is susceptible to change and modification within the practicability of the invention and therefore should be limited only by the scope of the claims appended hereto.

What is claimed is:

1. In combination, a printing press having an ink distributing system and a water distributing system, each system having one roller disposed adjacent to one roller of the other system, and the water distributing system having another roller and a cleaning fluid source in supply relation to said other roller, a cleaning fluid transmitting said one roller of the systems for directly transmitting cleaning fluid from said one roller of the water distributing system to said one roller of the ink distributing system, said transmitting roller having axial stub shaftson its opposite ends, and spring means operatively connected to each of said stub shafts and serving to maintain the transmitting roller in rolling contact with said one roller of the systems, the transmitting roller being otherwise unsupported on the press.

2. In combination, a printing press having an ink distributing system and a water distributing system, each system having one roller disposed adjacent to one roller of the other system, and the water distributing system having another roller and a cleaning fluid source in supply relation to said other roller, a cleaning fluid transmitting roller located between and resting in rolling contact, upon said one roller of the systems for directly transmitting cleaning fluid from said one roller of the water distributing system to said one roller of the ink distributing system, said transmitting roller having axial stub shafts on its opposite ends, anti-friction bearings eng-aged on said stub shafts, and contractile helical springs having one end secured to the bearings and another end removably connected with the press and serving to main tain the transmitting roller in rolling contact with said one roller of the systems, the transmitting roller being otherwise unsupported on the press.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,033,950 Morse Mar. 17, 1936 2,341,929 Lewis Feb. 15, 1944 2,363,817 Taylor Nov. 28, 1944 2,601,325 Richter June 24, 1952 2,690,119 Black Sept. 28, 1954 

